Third of Brazil impeachment commission accused of crimes: Report

Posted Dec 9, 2015 by AFP

A third of congressional deputies picked for a commission tasked with considering the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff face criminal investigations themselves, a report said Wednesday.

A third of congressional deputies picked for a commission tasked with considering the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff face criminal investigations themselves, a report said Wednesday.

The specialist website Congresso em Foco, which covers legislative news, said that at least 20 members of the 65-member special commission are the subject of probes or trials in the Supreme Court.

Alleged crimes include corruption, money laundering and violating electoral laws, the report said, quoting exclusive information. Three of the deputies on the list have been accused in the vast investigation into a bribes and kickbacks network centered on Petrobras, the state oil giant.

The list is dominated by the names of opposition members.

Rousseff, from the leftist Workers' Party, faces impeachment over allegedly illegal budgeting maneuvers. She says the practices were not criminal and were commonly used by previous governments.

The commission is the first step in the impeachment process. Once it makes a recommendation, the lower house votes, with a two-thirds majority in favor of impeachment needed to send the case to the Senate, where another two-thirds vote would force Rousseff to resign.

The commission was elected Tuesday in the lower house of Congress. However, the results were suspended hours later by the Supreme Court, acting on a complaint by Rousseff supporters that the opposition had organized the vote in an unconstitutional manner.